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One Enchanted Evening

Review

One Enchanted Evening

New York Times bestselling author Lynn Kurland turns
back time in ONE ENCHANTED EVENING for hopeless romantic Pippa
Alexander. Pippa is invited to showcase her exquisite medieval
fairy-tale-inspired costumes at a birthday party taking place at
her sister’s English castle called Sedgwick. One of the
guests could hold the keys to her acclaim as an international
designer, and she is anxiously anticipating her future --- until
one enchanted evening she takes a fateful step in the direction of
the past.

When the young knight Montgomery de Piaget lays eyes upon a
faery on the fields surrounding the spectacular Artane Castle on
the coast of England, he is captivated. He believes in faeries and
sees the shimmer that precedes a faery sighting. But his older
brother Robin reminds him that “a true knight concentrated on
steel and horses and honor.” At the age of 27,
Montgomery’s father bestows Sedgwick Castle on him. It is a
rat-infested hole, but Montgomery is determined to make the
run-down castle a shining beacon on the hill. On his first night at
the castle, he sees the familiar shimmer he observed as a young
knight.

Pippa and her jealous sister, Cindi, appear at that time wearing
their medieval costumes. They are thrust into life in the 13th
century after falling through the shimmer during an argument on the
grounds of Sedgwick. But as legends attest to, knights were
devilishly handsome. Montgomery de Piaget is no exception. He takes
the sisters into his castle, believing them to be faeries, not
knowing what the future would bring. He is utterly bewitched by the
loveliest faery, Pippa, and his chivalrous virtues are an
aphrodisiac to her. Kurland knows that chivalry and fantasy are
just as desired by 21st-century women, which is why they appear in
so many of her bestselling romance novels.

Cindi anoints herself queen of the castle and makes life so
miserable for Montgomery that he gladly agrees to find the shimmer
and push her back to the 21st century. An evil deed prevents Pippa
from going home with her. Mesmerized by the time gate, Pippa knows
she can return home, but how can fate be so cruel to make her
choose between her future design destiny and the knight she has
always dreamed of? Pippa loved the connection her medieval designs
gave her to the past (“Her clothes represented the fairy tale
and the fairy tale boiled down to a man and a woman falling in
love, having children, and living happily ever after.”). She
had wished for someone like Montgomery de Piaget, and karma had
delivered him.

ONE ENCHANTED EVENING takes the reader beyond a Lady Guinevere
heroine rescued by a Sir Lancelot hero. Montgomery and Pippa may be
from two different centuries, but they connect immediately and fall
in love. When she accidentally falls into the shimmer, she is
ripped from his heart before he expresses his love for her.
Montgomery makes his decision to explore life in Pippa’s
century and steps into the shimmer to find his beloved at Sedgwick
Castle in the 21st century. Kurland masterfully melds past,
present, and future in a timeless romance for all ages.

After reading ONE ENCHANTED EVENING, the reader will have no
illusions of medieval grandeur. Kurland wisely keeps the knight in
shining armor the focus of the period, and an appearance by the
King of England is a welcome enchantment. The novel indulges our
every fantasy about knights in shining armor riding to the rescue,
showing the reader that love is worth the risk, love is worth hard
choices, and love paves our future with unexpected surprises ---
and riding to the rescue is romantic and chivalrous in any
century.

Reviewed by Hillary Wagy on January 13, 2011

One Enchanted Evening
by Lynn Kurland

  • Publication Date: April 27, 2010
  • Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Jove
  • ISBN-10: 0515147915
  • ISBN-13: 9780515147919